Leroy Hill signs; I want football season to start today.

Link

Hill is in the fold. We officially have a linebacker trio that can make a bid to be the best in the league. This team isn’t without its weaknesses, but I’m excited. I honestly think the NFC West title is coming back to Seattle this season after an awful 2008.

A couple of Seahawk tidbits.

The only damper of a really good draft weekend was Tim Ruskell’s decision to remove the franchise tag from Leroy Hill. I figured that this was the end of Hill in Seattle, and while I tried to make peace with it, I couldn’t dismiss it as a blow to our 2009 hopes. Granted, I think we can do okay by plugging in DD Lewis or Lance Laury on the weakside at linebacker, but obviously we’ll experience a dropoff.

Here’s an encouraging bit of news…

Great trade, Ruskell.

Trading our 2nd round pick for Denver’s 1st round pick next year is absolutely brilliant. Sure, it’s too bad to get one less player this year, but we’re going to be loving life next year when we get to pick twice in the first round (and hopefully Denver’s will put us back in the top 10).

As if we needed more incentive to root against Denver week after week…we definitely have one now. Heck, I’ll even root for the Raiders at least two times next year.

Today sure feels better than a couple of years ago, when we had all but wasted a first round pick on Deion Branch and didn’t pick until late in the second (where we picked up Josh Wilson, who is…okay).

Welcome to Seattle, Aaron Curry.

It surprised me that when the Seahawks were making their pick, I found myself pulling for us to pick Mark Sanchez. I had warmed up to having a franchise quarterback waiting in the wings when Hasselbeck hits the end of the line. Hopefully going in another direction is a vote of confidence for Hasselbeck’s health though, because I love the guy and am in no hurry to see the end of the Hasselbeck era.

In general though, I think we were in a good position where we really couldn’t screw up this pick. Curry, Crabtree, Monroe, trade down…I would’ve been fine with any of it. I didn’t jump out of my seat when we picked Curry, but I’m happy with it. Like when we picked Steve Hutchinson some years ago, Curry appears to be one of those can’t-miss safe picks that should be a great linebacker for years to come. Great play, great character…I think we’re going to really like having him in Seattle.

I look forward to seeing who we take in the second round; Ruskell has shown that he knows how to strike gold in the second (and considering how aggressively he’s willing to trade up, we could easily see the Seahawks pick in the late first round too). In the meantime, I’ll just hope that the 49ers and Cardinals screw their picks up, and that Arizona gives Anquan Boldin away for nothing in the meantime.

NFL Draft is on Saturday

I’m always excited to sit and watch the Draft. It’ll be especially fun to see the Seahawks sitting in the top 5 for the first time in ages…though obviously we had to pay our dues by watching that awful 2008 season to get there.

I don’t have a horse that I particularly want in this draft. It would seem that Jason Smith, Eugene Monroe, Andre Smith, Mark Sanchez, Aaron Curry and Michael Crabtree is the group we can expect the Hawks to pick from, and I’m fine with any of them. My slight inclination is toward one of the tackles (J. Smith, Monroe, A. Smith), but I’m more than happy to pick up the linebacker Curry or the WR Crabtree.

I won’t be mad if we take Sanchez, but it’ll be a bit of a warning sign that our team doctors aren’t expecting much more from Hasselbeck, and as such I don’t know if we’ll have a lot to look forward to this coming season. I’m fine for drafting for the future, but I don’t see why the Seahawks can’t be right back on top of the West in 2009. It’d be nice if we could take an impact player now and get back to winning games, but of course Matt’s back is going to have to cooperate for that to happen.

I don’t think any need is entirely glaring, so I don’t think we’ll go wrong by taking the best player available. If Crabtree is really all he’s cracked up to be (and I think he is), he’s worth being taken despite our WR corps looking pretty good. You don’t pass on Michael Jordan just because you’ve got Manu Ginobli…

During the course of the draft, I want to see us get help on the offensive line, the interior defensive line, running back, safety and a quarterback. I don’t think linebacker is necessary to address, but if Curry is perennial pro bowl material, then by all means take him. Same as the Crabtree situation.

I’ll blog about the draft as it happens this weekend.

2009 Schedule Released

Yes, I readily admit that I waited all day for the NFL to release their 2009 schedule, so I could start preparing myself for when the Seahawks would be playing. Here’s Seattle’s slate…

1	Sun, Sept. 13	vs. St. Louis Rams	FOX	4:15 p.m.
2	Sun, Sept. 20	at San Francisco 49ers	FOX	4:05 p.m.
3	Sun, Sept. 27	vs. Chicago Bears	FOX	4:05 p.m.
4	Sun, Oct. 4	at Indianapolis Colts	FOX	1 p.m.
5	Sun, Oct. 11	vs. Jacksonville Jaguars	CBS	4:15 p.m.
6	Sun, Oct. 18	vs. Arizona Cardinals	FOX	4:05 p.m.
7	Bye
8	Sun, Nov. 1	at Dallas Cowboys	FOX	1 p.m.
9	Sun, Nov. 8	vs. Detroit Lions	FOX	4:05 p.m.
10	Sun, Nov. 15	at Arizona Cardinals	FOX	4:15 p.m.
11	Sun, Nov. 22	at Minnesota Vikings	FOX	1 p.m.
12	Sun, Nov. 29	at St. Louis Rams	FOX	1 p.m.
13	Sun, Dec. 6	vs. San Francisco 49ers	FOX	4:15 p.m.
14	Sun, Dec. 13	at Houston Texans	FOX	1 p.m.
15	Sun, Dec. 20	vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers	FOX	4:15 p.m.
16	Sun, Dec. 27	at Green Bay Packers	FOX	1 p.m.
17	Sun, Jan. 3	vs. Tennessee Titans	CBS	4:15 p.m.

I like it.

Very nice. T.J. Houshmandzadeh to the Seahawks.

5 years, $40 mil, $15 mil of it is guaranteed.

Let's hope he can keep the 49ers at an arm's length for a few more years.

T.J. is sure-handed, has an attitude I like, and immediately becomes our surest threat at receiver. He and Deion Branch make for a very solid duo, and if Burleson heals up we’re in fine shape at WR. I seriously doubt Bobby Engram comes back. As much as I like Michael Crabtree, this solidifies my opinion that the Seahawks should use their #4 overall pick in the trenches, on either an offensive tackle or defensive tackle.

Cheer up, Arizona…anyone with a brain knew that the division was just on loan to you for a year.

Thanks, Coach.

It really was fantastic to see the Seahawks score that win today, even in an awful season that has been meaningless for a long time now. It meant a heck of a lot to the Jets and the rest of the AFC East, and our team rose up and meant something again in the NFL for a few hours. To send Mike Holmgren out with a win, to give him real reason to take a lap around Qwest to greet the fans…it made me happy.

Coach Holmgren is my favorite head coach in Seattle sports history, bar none. I absolutely love the guy. He brought us to new levels of success in Seattle, made playoffs the norm when we were used to always sitting at home in January, and brought a level of class and character to the franchise that I can appreciate. I loved his coaching (his conservative style more than suited me), and loved his personality. To have him as the face of our franchise for a decade was an honor, and while I’m more than happy to get behind Coach Mora next year (even if I’m skeptical about him), I’m very much going to miss Holmgren. Tough to see him go, but I’m happy for him to get a chance to recharge his batteries a bit, and I wish him the best when he inevitably pops back up in the NFL one day. Thanks, Coach.

Things aren’t getting better for the Seahawks.

Here are the good parts of this Seahawk season: John Carlson.

That’s all. We found our tight end for years to come, and everything else is pretty terrible.

Seahawks lose, Cardinals win…I can’t spread any rays of sunshine for you.

I think today would’ve been a much different game if Matt Hasselbeck had been able to play, but it is what it is…the Seahawks are 1-4, and have been blown out in three out of four losses. Meanwhile, the Cardinals finally seem to have stepped up, reached that next level, and figured out how to beat good teams.

This thing isn’t entirely over…it’s just mostly over. We’re headed to Tampa next week to play a Bucs squad who just completely owned the Carolina Panthers. I suppose if Hasselbeck plays, we’ve got a chance, but even then there’s not a lot that tells me that we’re as good as they are.

I still love football season, but it sure is less fun when my teams are bad. The WSU Cougars are downright historically bad…that can’t be said for the Seahawks, but I sure can’t say we’re any good right now. I’m looking forward to Cougar basketball…

And the hits just keep on comin’…Hasselbeck probably out this week.

On the eve of a game that the Seahawks can’t afford to lose, they just lost the player they can least afford to lose. Matt Hasselbeck is probably out, Charlie Frye is probably starting. Translation: the Seahawks are staring 1-4 in the face unless the defense shows up in a way they haven’t so far this year. This year is really turning out to be the sports year from hell if you’re a Seattle fan.

EDIT: I am changing my pick on this week’s weekly picks to Packers, both straight up and against the spread (they’re 1.5 point dogs).

Not much to say. Until further notice, the ‘Hawks just aren’t very good.

When Matt Hasselbeck completed a ball to Deion Branch on the first play from scrimmage for about 13 yards, I felt good. The offense should be better going forward, I thought. A few plays later, Hass was on the ground clutching his knee in agony. Sadly, by the end of the day, Hasselbeck’s surprisingly healthy knee was the only good news from a horrific day where the Seahawks rolled over and played dead.

We’re now two games behind the Cardinals, and playing some pretty wretched ball in general. We’ll have to go 8-4 the rest of the way to win nine games, and it’s hard to even think that way if you watch the team play. Thankfully the next opponent, the Green Bay Packers, seems to have their own problems, and appears to be an entirely beatable team headed into Qwest Field next week. If the Seahawks can’t take care of the Packers at home, things will be getting very, very ominous.

The optimist in me says that there’s a decent chance we can win against Green Bay next week, and that there’s also a good chance Arizona will lose to Dallas. We don’t play in the NFC East, so we get a lot more margin for error than a team like Philadelphia does. This thing isn’t lost yet…but there’s absolutely nothing good to take from today’s game. Right now, our team stinks, and there isn’t any way around it.

Nice bye week for the ‘Hawks.

Arizona stays on the east coast between their games at Washington and New York to stay adjusted to the time zone difference, and naturally doesn’t bother waking up and playing until the second half of this morning’s game. I really thought they’d win that game, as I don’t think much of the Jets…but I was ecstatic to see them get pounded the way they did. After the last two losses they’ve suffered, I think we have every reason to hope they’ll see similar results over the next couple of weeks against the Bills and Cowboys. Significant also is the injury to Anquan Boldin, who got hurt in the final minute of today’s game…it was a scary helmet-to-helmet collision, and I certainly hope nothing too serious happened (knee injuries to other teams I don’t bother feeling bad about, but head/neck injuries are a whole different matter).

Good, good. I wasn’t ready for this season to die so early.

As I mentioned earlier in the week, 0-3 is extremely likely to ensure that your season is over by the end of week 17. Thankfully, the Seahawks didn’t even flirt with that possibility this week, jumping all over the Rams and never leaving me with the sense that we might lose. Stubborn old Mike Holmgren insists on throwing the ball no matter who we’re lining up at receiver, and things actually looked pretty good at wideout this week. Billy McMullen looked good, Michael Bumpus did as well (aside from having questionable hands at times), and rookie tight end John Carlson continues to impress.

Beyond that, though, we’re getting a higher quality of running out of Julius Jones than we’ve gotten since 2005.

Koren Robinson back in the fold

Desperately trying to keep the season from slipping away, the Seahawks signed Koren Robinson, who came up with the team and last played here in 2004.

Robinson’s personal problems with alcoholism are well-documented, and have largely caused the downfall of his NFL career…he’s now claiming 25 months of sobriety, a new marriage and fatherhood, and I’m sure we’re all rooting for him to have put those demons behind him for good. For what it’s worth, the personal endorsement of Matt Hasselbeck carries great weight with me.

And quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, Robinson’s quarterback from 2001-04 in Seattle, told Ruskell that Robinson had turned his life around. Hasselbeck saw Robinson during a weeklong Christian retreat in Dallas last winter and was impressed.

“I don’t know about the football side of it at all. I haven’t seen him play in a long time,” Hasselbeck said Monday. “But, I guess what I care about more is that he grew up and really matured and got his life turned around in the right direction. … I’m proud of him.”

So, good for him. From a football standpoint,

We’re becoming “that” team.

Most seasons, there is some team that gets ravage by injury so badly that there’s just no reasonable way to expect them to be able to win many ballgames. Sadly, it feels like the Seahawks are becoming the ’08 edition of that team. Our personnel on offense is just too depleted, and while the season isn’t over by any stretch, things are getting really dicey now.

Regardless of our injuries, this is a team we could’ve beaten, and we didn’t get it done. Next week, we play another team in St. Louis that we can beat. Our backs are officially against the wall; if we can’t beat St. Louis, it’s really hard to see us recovering and turning this into a successful season. If we can beat them, we get the bye week and hopefully the opportunity to get some wide receivers back from the injured list, and things might brighten up. Right now, though…pretty rough.

Well, that was uglier than I expected.

As I’ve said many times, I was very worried about that Buffalo game from the moment I saw it on the schedule, so I was prepared for a loss today. So, I’m not devastated now that it’s happened. I didn’t expect us to get kicked around the way we did, which is pretty disconcerting, but I’m still planning on us taking a 2-1 record into the bye week.

Hass back at practice today.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw it officially reported that Matt Hasselbeck was back at practice today. I was beginning to get nervous about his condition, particularly after seeing Tacoma News-Tribune tabloid writer Frank Hughes stirring up gossip about Matt’s back still being stiff on ESPN this morning. If he was in any real danger of having to sit out this weekend, I doubt he would’ve been back for the Monday practice.

This game against Buffalo on Sunday makes me nervous…we already have enough injuries to deal with, and I doubt if we’d win that game if Seneca Wallace was playing quarterback. I only consider us a slight favorite as it is.

Gotta love the inner turmoil of our division rivals.

With the Seahawks, there are certainly some concerns…injuries at a lot of positions, inexperience at wide receiver, tight end and offensive line, and a total overhaul of the running game that leaves that part of our offense at a big question mark entering the season. Still, the fact is that we’ve had the best team in the division for four years running, and all of our cornerstone players are in camp, and seemingly healthy and happy. Fans of our rivals have a lot more to worry about…

Seahawk preseason game #2…a bit ugly, but it was fun.

If the Chicago Bears are on the field, you can be sure that they’ll turn the game into an ugly war of attrition. I can’t blame Lovie Smith for coaching them this way, they are what they are and they have virtually no offensive talent, but it sure is brutal to watch a lot of the time.

Anyway, without having to spend a single second stressing the health of Matt Hasselbeck, I was able to just kick back and enjoy the game for what it was.

The Good

*The defense looked great in general. Of course, when you’re lining up against the Bears it’s easy for a defense to look good, but it was still pleasant to watch. Leroy Hill is an animal, and our linebacking crew is just going to be sick this year. It was nice to see Marcus Trufant playing well again after a rough first preseason game.